The National Centre for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons (NCCSALW) on Thursday in Abuja, engaged stakeholders to galvanise support towards prevention and control of the proliferation of small and light weapons in Nigeria.
The one-day roundtable was organised in collaboration with Mines Advisory Group (MAG) to raise awareness, solicit broad-based support and extract commitments from various stakeholders..
Participants at the meeting included heads of ministerial, security and intelligence agencies, members of the diplomatic community, international and regional bodies as well as selected members of the civil society.
The National Coordinator, NCCSALW, retired Maj.-Gen. Abba Dikko said the center was established in May to widen national response in tackling the menace of illicit small arms and light weapons in the country and West Africa sub-region.
Dikko said that the proliferation of small arms and light weapons in Nigeria had negatively impacted peace, security and social-economic wellbeing of the nation in the last two decades.
According to him, it had remained a key driver of terrorism, ethno-religious conflict, separatism, and sundry organised criminal activities within and across Nigerian borders.
He noted that Nigeria has borne the brunt of the instability in the Sahel region and the push and pull effect of arms trafficking since the start of the Libyan civil war.
“Consequently, Nigeria in concert with its neighbors equals and other international stakeholders over the years as canvassed for the total eradication of illicit small arms and light weapons in the possession of unauthorized persons or at least halt their proliferation.
“Although the progress made in this area has remained a far cry from the desirable, Nigeria has continued to tackle the challenge in its purpose-driven strike.
“The establishment of the NCCSALW by President Muhammadu Buhari was a national response to this challenge and was aimed at providing additional whims to the effort already made by the erstwhile presidential commission on small arms and light weapons.
“This action was imperative as the need to engage international partners with the right institutional framework had become vital with a much-needed multilateral effort to successfully combat the proliferation of SALW in Nigeria and the sub-region,” he said.
The coordinator disclosed that the center had since inception articulated a robust vision, mission, and key objectives to guide the implementation of its core functions.
He said the center had since commenced the effort to drive the process of moving Nigeria closer to an illicit arms-free society.
According to him, part of the effort is to build the capacity of security agencies on weapons security and stockpile management and establishing robust infrastructure for national database management.
Others, he said, included procurement of facilities and technical support for weapon tracing, tracking and destruction, as well as border security, and management level capacity building for staff of the center.
“There is also the need for construction of weapon holding facilities for the zonal offices and armories for vulnerable security outposts across the country and finally, diplomatic engagements with weapon exporting states, regional organizations and neighboring West and Central African countries,” he said.
The Regional Programme Manager, Mines Advisory Group (MAG), Nicole Ntagabo, commended the government of Nigeria and the center for the effort towards reducing the proliferation of illicit weapons and ammunition.
Ntagabo reiterated the commitment of MAG with its partners to provide more technical leadership in support of Nigerian government through the NCCSALW and complement the role of other local, national, regional, and international organisations.
She urged all stakeholders to resolve to do more jointly to tackle the challenge of arms proliferation in the country, adding that more still needed to be done in this regard. (NAN)
